Before the Nonprofit Resource Center began operating in Sacramento 20 years ago, the local nonprofit community had no single voice, advocate or source of information.

The Web, still in its infancy, had yet to become a convenient place to search for resources. The continuous cycle of government funding cuts had yet to begin, nor had the onslaught of new nonprofits locally.

The Nonprofit Resource Center, now with a staff of five and an annual budget of $650,000, is marking its 20 years with a Sept. 15 celebration. The center’s actual anniversary was in March.

Led by only its second executive director, the Nonprofit Resource Center is about to expand its reach by adding benefits for members and embarking on a study of the region’s nonprofit sector.

This month, the center will begin offering members access to discounts for credit card processing, human resource services and insurance for employees, said Ann Lucas, who three years ago took over as executive director from founder Jan Stohr.

And with the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, the center plans to study the economic impact of the local charitable sector. Together, the organizations will study the amount and recipients of local giving, donors’ attitudes about giving, the experience of givers and the reasons people don’t give. The organizations need to raise $500,000 for the study and a follow-up marketing and education plan.

Although they can easily obtain information online, nonprofit leaders say they need the center more than ever.

“We would not exist if it were not for the Nonprofit Resource Center,” said Carolyn Rich Curtis, executive director of the Healthy Marriage Project. Since founding her Sacramento nonprofit in 2005, she has taken advantage of every service the center provides, including executive director boot camp, a cohort learning program for chief executive officers and guidance on individual issues facing charitable organizations.

“There isn’t a part of this organization that the Nonprofit Resource Center hasn’t been a part of,” Curtis said.

In four years, Healthy Marriage Project has grown to 13 employees and a budget of more than half a million dollars.

“It’s my own consulting firm that is looking out for me,” she said.

Nonprofits need the center’s staff to sift through an overwhelming amount of information — and filter the good from the bad, Lucas said.

Demands are changing. A dozen years ago nonprofit leaders might have wanted training on the basics of leadership or human resources. Today, they ask about such things as how to manage four generations of workers.

“They know the basic stuff now,” Lucas said.

There are many more charities needing guidance. In the five counties that the United Way California Capital Region serves, 501(c)(3)s have been growing at a rate of 30 a month for the past decade, said Steve Heath, CEO and president of the local United Way. Most don’t have support from an affiliated national organization like the United Way does.

The Nonprofit Resource Center looks out for all charities, whether or not they can afford their own consultants.

“It has the ability to equalize the environment,” said Rose Lester, who owns a fundraising consulting firm in Sacramento. Individuals and organizations that can’t afford to hire professional guidance still have the opportunity to pursue their charitable interests.

In addition to providing training to individual nonprofits, the Nonprofit Resource Center works with the California Association of Nonprofits to serve as an advocate for the nonprofit community, “helping people understand the value of the nonprofit sector,” Lucas said.

The center “has raised the stature of the nonprofit sector by being a voice for and a source of information about the vital work being done by our region’s nonprofits,” said Ruth Blank, CEO of the California Region Community Foundation.

That voice has ruffled a few feathers, such as when the center united with many individual nonprofits earlier this decade to speak out against some practices and operational changes at the United Way.

That was before Heath’s days at the United Way. Despite those “couple rough years” of relations, Heath said he has “nothing but respect for Jan,” what she accomplished, and the professionalism she brought to the sector.

Founder Stohr had worked in the nonprofit sector for many years when in 1987, she recognized the need for an organization that could provide advice, training and consulting for nonprofits, including a library of materials.

Stohr said she had a reputation for killing many nonprofits before they got off the ground. “You couldn’t not let them start a nonprofit,” she said.

But she could tell someone interested in establishing a charity that a similar one already existed.

That’s something Heath hopes the Nonprofit Resource Center will do more of in the future — discourage people who, despite great intentions, would only duplicate existing efforts.

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